Desiree's Baby Essay

The short story “Désirée’s Baby” written by Kate Chopin is a jaw-dropping story loaded with elements of racism, morality, and sexism of the 19th century. Every part of Chopin’s story was an eye opening experience for me because it allowed me to visualize the way women and black people were seen as. Neither women or blacks had the opportunity to prosper and be successful because they, of course, mere seen as inferior to the superior white male. However, in “Désirée’s Baby” Chopin informs the reader on how all of the elements could eventually lead to death, hence Désirée and the baby. Chopin is one of the most extravagant writers and all of the stories I have read by her have been very creative. Color was very prominent in “Désirée’s Baby.” The greatest division among our nation today is color because not all Americans like the concept of unity. Several things in “Désirée’s Baby” are defined with mostly two distinct colors, white and black. The author uses phrases such as “black like cowl” and “sweeping over him like an avalanche” to denote color. For example, the Avalanche is associated with white, which represent positive news and superiority. Whereas, the features of the roof were associated with the color black, which denotes darkness and negativeness. There is also separation of color amount the
Moreover, because Armand does not care where Désirée is from, he assumes that she has black in her, although he is the one who has the darker complexion. This part of the story made me realize how women of that period had no control or say so to what they thought. Thus, women like Désirée struggled with living an average life because of the constrictions that were placed on them. Désirée was even afraid to stand up to Armand and question his dark skin complexion. Désirée not being able to stand up and speak for herself shows the inferiority that women had of that